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Dynavox Picture Communication Symbols® (PCS) have been used by millions of students and adults to understand and structure the world around them, communicate their thoughts, and learn to read and write.

Symbolate

by Support TeamOctober 01, 2018

The symbolate feature provides a quick way to create symbol-adapted text for sentence strips, stories, directions, and other instructional materials and aids. This tutorial will cover how to create, populate, and modify symbolate buttons in your Boardmaker Online activities.

From your home page, select Create Activities to navigate to the online editor.

To use Symbolate in an activity that you create from scratch, Select New Blank Activity.

Select the Symbolate Tool in the toolbar

Click in your work space and the button will appear

Select the corner of the button and stretch the symbolate button to the desired size and shape.

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With the symbolate button selected, use your keyboard to type the text you want.

A symbol will appear as each word is completed.

To replace any symbol, place your cursor on the text below it and double click.

Select the desired symbol from the candidates shown.

Select Select.

If you want to select the new symbol as the default symbol for symbolate, select Set as Default.

If you wish to have no symbol above the word, select No Symbol.

If you are using a phrase in your symbolate button and wish the symbol to be centered over the phrase, initially type the phrase as one word, with no spaces.

Then place your cursor where the word break belongs, and type a space.

The symbol will center over the phrase.As with other button types, you can use the properties panel to change the look of your symbolate button. Select the button and then select the property on the properties panel that you wish to modify.

Select the dropdown below Symbol location to place the symbols above or below the text.

Select the up and down arrows within Symbol Height to increase or decrease the size of the symbols.

Use Font properties to change the type, size, color, etc. of the text in your symbolate button.

Select a color from the Fill dropdown menu to give your symbolate button a background color.

Use Border properties to change the type, thickness, and color of the symbolate button border.

Style properties allow you to change the shape of your symbolate button.

The action editor allows you to add actions to your symbolate button on an interactive activity.

You may also create activities from Activity Starter Templates that incorporate symbolate buttons. There are several variations of Book Templates within Boardmaker Online that incorporate symbolate buttons. These are already programmed as symbolate buttons and you will just select the button and enter your text.To access any of these templates:

From your Home page, select Create Activities.

Select Books and Presentations from the Activity Type list.

You may narrow the choices by selecting Interactive (activities meant to be played interactively on a computer or iPad) or Print (activities meant to be printed) above.

Scroll through the templates to find the one you want.

You may select Show Sample beneath the thumbnail of a template to view a completed example.

Select Select beneath the thumbnail to create your own activity from that template.

The template will open in the Online Editor in another window.

Select and enter your text in the Symbolate text boxes on each page of the book.

Follow the directions in red to add pictures to your book.

NOTE: The BMO Template Guide provides information about all interactive templates and you can access it here!